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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/22771456">Hear you me</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/pseuds/withered'>withered</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>liminal space [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Bleach</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Post-Grandfisher</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-02-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-02-17</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 05:41:27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>660</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/22771456</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/withered/pseuds/withered</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>"You let me do it."<br/>"You asked me to."<br/>Rukia is the only person Ichigo trusts with the rain.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Kuchiki Rukia/Kurosaki Ichigo</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>liminal space [19]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/1413535</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>12</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>101</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Hear you me</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>For the cliche tropes prompt game on my tumblr</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p> </p>
<p>“Wake up, you idiot!”</p>
<p>Consciousness feels nebulous, but Ichigo knows that voice anywhere.</p>
<p>His mouth twitches, and with a squint through heavy lids, he gripes, “You’re so bossy.”</p>
<p>Ichigo opens his eyes properly to blinks of light in the silhouette of Rukia’s face before a sudden, prolonged flash of white puts her in sharp relief, highlights the worry pinching her brows, the fear around her eyes as distant booms rumble, and a clap tears open the sky. It’s still raining. But.</p>
<p>But Ichigo feels like he’s going to be okay.</p>
<p>“You let me fight him,” he murmurs next, closing his eyes against the shadows of the storm, the pelt of rainwater; safe in the knowledge that she’s watching over him, and only opening his eyes again to see hers: more purple in the dark, tinged a little in red. There are tears at her waterline, and with a quick, hard blink, she pushes them away; sniffs discretely, and tries to frown. “You asked me to.”</p>
<p>Ichigo exhales and it leaves him in a cloud of condensed air, cloudy like smoke. As if his body and nature both need him to see the heaviness in his chest released.</p>
<p>His lips twitch, unfamiliar with the sudden urge, but he lets it happen anyway, and above him, it’s Rukia turn to sigh. At this angle, he could count her lashes; he could figure out the exact shade of impossible colors that make up her irises. He repeats, breathless, “You let me…”</p>
<p>She hums, runs her fingers through his hair, and her smile a little; a flower spreading its arms a little wider at the hint of the sun. It still looks a little wobbly, a little fragile, but. She’s got a shadow of a dimple, a half crescent moon at her cheek, and <em>she let him try</em>. Rukia had believed he would be able to do it. She tells him so, “I knew you could.”</p>
<p>He exhales another breath, shaky; disbelieving.</p>
<p>He did it. He did it.</p>
<p>His mother. He’d avenged his mother. He’d killed what killed her.</p>
<p>He did it.</p>
<p>Ichigo doesn’t notice the tears until Rukia is pressing them into his cheeks, rubbing them slowly away with soft, cool hands. Murmuring comforting noises over his stuttered breathing; gentling the harsh squeeze of his lungs with her fingers soothing through his hair; they stay together in that field until the waves of a renewed grief tumble through him. When next he speaks, his voice is strained, his gaze cloudy where Rukia isn’t, “You didn’t even ask me why.”</p>
<p>She shakes her head, and the rain that clings to it trembles against its precarious clutch of the inky strands. “It mattered to you, that much I know. And if you want to tell me, you can. And if you never do, I’ll never make you.”</p>
<p>He closes his eyes on a hum, the same twitch of his lips.</p>
<p>He doesn’t tell her then, and true to her word, Rukia doesn’t ask.</p>
<p>But he does tell her, eventually.</p>
<p>With her head in his lap in the aftermath of a fight, he asks Inoue, “Can she hear me?”</p>
<p>Her gaze flickers, her hands still glowing. She worries her lip. Nods.</p>
<p>And that’s when Ichigo tells Rukia about his mother, how he couldn’t protect her, how he watched her die.</p>
<p>Chad and Ishida stand like barricades against the world, silent and comforting in their stillness and quiet, their presence. The sidewalk begins to darken with raindrops.</p>
<p>Ichigo runs his fingers through Rukia's hair. “I can’t lose you, you hear me? I can’t. You can’t leave me. I’m. I’m a wreck without you. So. Don’t go. You know how bad I am at goodbyes so don’t make me say ‘em. You hear me, Rukia? Wake up!”</p>
<p>There’s movement beneath her lids, a flutter of her lashes. Through the rain she squints up at him, and her lips twitch into a smile as she teases, “You’re so bossy.”</p>
<p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>
  <a href="https://everything-withered.tumblr.com/">Hang out with me</a>
</p></blockquote></div></div>
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